THE HISTORY OF CREATIVE SALVAGE

‘It comes from London and it comes from the music business. You take different influences and you meld them together and you make it up as you go along. There’s no formal training in rock and roll. People learn themselves and they teach each other.’Tom Dixon

Illustrated by a huge archive of previously unpublished images, with a cover by Ben Kelly, and including interviews with Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Joe Rush, Mark Brazier-Jones, Jon Mills, André Dubreuil and Danny Lane, this is the account of some of the most anarchic design ever produced. Those involved relate how the emergent hip hop culture encountered when Funkapolitan supported The Clash in New York inspired bassist Tom Dixon and singer Nick Jones to launch the first hip hop club in London. When the crowd grew too big for the Language Lab, they put on parties in pirated buildings across London. Cars being chopped by Mark Brazier-Jones provided the light show, crashing the fuel-spewing wrecks the entertainment. These demolition derbies also sparked the idea to weld one tonne of scrap metal into furniture.

From parties in North Venice Bus Depot to the Venice Biennale, via the Notting Hill Carnival to a gig at Manchester’s Hacienda – and a stop at Buckingham Palace to collect an OBE for services to design: this is the history of Creative Salvage.